Deion Sanders addresses rumors he's looking to leave Jackson State
In a recent interview with the Jackson State-focused Thee Pregame Show, Deion Sanders addressed rumors he is looking to leave Jackson for an FBS job. Let's process his answer in full and then break it down afterward.
"Now, don't think I don't hear the echoes of, 'What's Coach Prime going to do? Is he going to leave? Is he going to stay? Is he going to do this, do that?' Don't think I don't hear that. Let me address that," he said.
"I'm happy where I am. It's a calling where I am. God didn't give me a timetable. He said, 'You've got to go be there for how long.' He told me to do what (He) asked me to do and do it at a high level.
"Now, I don't know the timetable for any of that, so I'm not going to tell anybody the timetable. I don't know. God hasn't given me the timetable for those instructions, but what I do concern myself with is my coaching staff. I feel like I have a phenomenal coaching staff and they're coaching their butts off. I'm trying to find ways to compensate them even more because they've out-coached their salaries.
"Say I took a job at a Power 5. That does not change my lifestyle. That doesn't do nothing for me, I'm good. God has sustained me. I'm good. But it does for them. So I'm trying to do things to create more revenue at an HBCU so that I can stabilize my guys."
There are three ways to view this answer.
The first is that Deion gave the standard coach answer. He loves his job and isn't actively looking to leave, but none of us know what the future holds and so there's no use in him pledging himself a Jackson State Tiger for life. The "never say never" answer.
Then there is the, let's call it the good faith view. Deion became Coach Prime at God's instruction, he doesn't speak for God, and so he can't know how long He plans to keep Deion in Jackson. Today, God wants Deion in Jackson. Tomorrow's direction is likely the same. One, two, three years from now? So says Proverbs 19:21. "Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails."
And then there is the cynical view. The cynic reads Deion's answer and says he's priming the Jackson State faithful for his inevitable departure, and in doing so Deion cynically protects himself in two separate forcefields -- he's leaving because God has called him to coach at a bigger university, and/or he's leaving because he owes his faithful staff the opportunity to work at a bigger, richer university.
The truth is likely all three at once. Assuming Deion continues to win -- and there's no reason not to, given how he's been recruiting -- he'll improve on the 15-5 record he's posted through two seasons in Jackson. The more he wins, the more attractive he'll look to Power 5 schools like TCU and Arkansas. When the right job comes along at the right time, Deion will likely take it -- no different than thousands of coaches before him and thousands more will after him.
And when the inevitable happens, Coach Prime will likely tell the Jackson State faithful that he didn't want to take that Power 5 job, he had to take it.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
